Ramada Touts Service but Can It Deliver?

Advertiser: Ramada Inns and Hotels

Agency: Impax Marketing Communications, Philadelphia

Challenge: Develop a brand campaign that applies to Ramada’s varying properties and distinguishes it from other mid-tier chains.

The Ads: A series of print ads relating tales of Ramada employees who’ve gone the extra mile for guests. One ad highlights an employee who invited 50 disgruntled guests to his home to watch the June 1997 Tyson-Holyfield boxing match after a cable company inadvertently blocked the pay-per-view fight from an Antioch, Calif., Ramada Inn. Another ad tells how a waiter at the Ramada Plaza Hotel at Fisherman’s Wharf satisfied a diner’s request for a Wendy’s cheeseburger by purchasing one at a nearby Wendy’s and delivering it to him. A third ad describes a night auditor at a Ramada in Pontoon Beach, Ill., who made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for a guest because every restaurant in the vicinity was closed.

Comment: As lodging becomes a commodity, Ramada tries to set itself apart by touting the efforts of its employees. In these ads, employees go to extraordinary lengths to provide good service-- raising expectations of people staying at Ramada. While the boxing match described in one ad is an unusual event, bizarre menu requests are more common. Ramada risks disappointing the next customer who asks for a Wendy’s burger and doesn’t get one. $$